The Spanish international, who suffered a season-ending injury on 19 January in the EuroLeague Women game against Lotos Gdynia, has assured her numerous fans that she is receiving all possible support from her club, Galatasaray.

Torrens recently underwent knee injury and her long trip to rehabilitation has commenced. She is determined to come back stronger than ever.

Journalist Alvaro Paricio, a women's basketball expert, says that in all this time, she never stopped being her usual good-natured self, she never stopped being nice to everyone around her.

The explanation is simple, Paricio says, we can disagree about everything when it comes to basketball, about styles of play, about the quality of a player, about which team is better, but there is one thing nobody can dispute:

Alba Torrens is not only a top-level player, she is also an extremely likeable person, she radiates positive energy, her honest smile is contagious.

Paricio thought that it was time for the basketball world to return the favour, now that Torrens needs a morale boost more than ever.

He convinced a number of high-profile players to put on a red nose and send a photo of themselves smiling to Alba. Clown suits were not mandatory!

Silvia Dominguez, a former teammate of Torrens at Perfumerias Avenida kick-started the campaign and the first photos of the initiative were posted on the ACB website.

The list of well-wishers includes among others Laia Palau, Isa Sanchez, Marta Xargay, Jorge Garbajosa, Berni Rodriguez, Elisa Aguilar, Amaya Valdemoro, Laura Nichols while there are hundreds more messages of support on Twitter (#animoalba).